Greens pledge to keep women on the agenda in parliament

2019-03-08

Ahead of International Women’s Day tomorrow, Greens NSW Spokesperson for Women Abigail Boyd and Greens Member for Newtown Jenny Leong have announced their plan to keep women at the top of the next state parliament’s agenda.

Before the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on 25 November 2019, the Greens pledge to do the following:

  1. Reintroduce a bill to decriminalise abortion by removing Division 12 of the NSW Crimes Act 1900.

  2. Introduce a bill to amend the definition of consent in section 61HA of the Crimes Act to require active, affirmative and ongoing sexual consent.

  3. Put a motion calling on the NSW government to join Our Watch to support the evidence-based framework driving nationwide change in the culture, behaviours and power imbalances that lead to family violence.

  4. Introduce a bill to repeal the forced adoption laws introduced by the Berejiklian government at the end of 2018.

  5. Move to establish a Sexual, Domestic and Family Violence Committee to oversee the implementation of the NSW Women’s Alliance’s Safe State recommendations.

“It’s not enough to just pay lip service to issues like gender equality and domestic violence during election time,” Abigail Boyd said.

“The Greens are serious about pushing legislative changes in parliament to improve the lives of women in NSW and to put an end to the domestic violence crisis.

“Women are dying every week and at the core of violence against women are gender norms and harmful attitudes towards women. Those attitudes are reinforced in NSW by archaic laws that deny us the most basic human rights, like the right to control our own bodies. We can and should be acting on these issues as a priority,” Boyd said

In 2018 Greens MP Jenny Leong successfully introduced a motion to the NSW Legislative Assembly supporting a women’s right to choose safe, legal abortions that passed unanimously through the NSW lower house.

The motion that passed was as follows:

That this House supports the right for women to make the choice that is right for them, which includes respecting the right to access safe, legal abortion.

“The unanimous vote in the Legislative Assembly of the NSW Parliament endorsing the right of women to access safe, legal abortions shows that abortion must now be removed from the Crimes Act,” Jenny Leong said.

“We call on whoever the future Minister for Women is to immediately act to decriminalise abortion in this state.

“This needs decisive action, not further committees and consultation.

“The unanimous vote shows the role the Greens in parliament can play - to put 100 year old issues like this on the agenda, issues which successive NSW governments have ignored for years.

“The Greens will continue to lead the campaign in NSW Parliament for safe, legal abortion in the next parliament,” Leong said.
 

Media Contact: Andrew Bradley p: 0403 777 137 e: andrew.bradley@nsw.greens.org.au